February 27 - 8 am
Mount Sinai Hospital
Manhattan, New York
Lachlan Kane hurried through the hallways of the hospital, holding Jade in his arms while Sierra Williams followed behind him holding Olivia.
“Lachy, is Lanah gonna be OK?” Jade asked, her big brown eyes wide.
Lachlan gave her a reassuring smile. “Of course she is, little darling,” he said. “She gets sick like this sometimes, but she always gets better.”
That answer seemed to calm her, and she smiled a bit as they walked up to the intake desk. The middle-aged nurse looked up at the little family with a kind smile.
“How can I help you?” she asked.
“I’m looking for Alanah O’Connell,” Lachlan told her. “She was admitted earlier this morning.”
The nurse typed the name into the computer. “Are you a family member?”
He nodded. “I’m her brother.”
She looked at the computer screen. “O’Connell...ah, here she is. She got moved from emergency to the pulmonology department when the attending doctor learned her medical history.” She wrote down the room number on an information brochure that had a map of the hospital printed on it. “The little ones may not be able to visit, just so you know. That will be up to the department nurses. Just as a precaution, you understand.”
Lachlan nodded and took the paper. “We’ll sort it out when we get there. Thank you.”
They followed the directions on the map and soon they found themselves where they needed to be. They spoke with the intake nurse there, who told them that the girls would indeed not be able to fully enter the ward as a health precaution.
“I’ll take them to the cafeteria for some food,” Sierra said, taking Jade’s hand.
The five year old immediately pouted. “No, I wanna see Lanah!” She stomped her foot angrily, folding her little arms across her chest tightly.
Lachlan kneeled down and put his hands on her shoulders. “I know you do, a stór. And I have no doubt that Lanah wants to see you just as much. But I also know that she wouldn’t want you to get sick either. She would want you to stay healthy and strong so you can play a lot, right?”
Jade sniffled a bit, but nodded. Lachlan smiled and kissed the top of her head. “That’s my girl. How about you go with Mummy and Livvie and get some food, and after we’re done here we’ll go for a carriage ride in the park, alright?”
Jade grinned at that, and hugged Lach before scampering off with Sierra. He let out a breath and turned back around to head to Alanah’s room.
When he stepped inside, he was immediately struck by how nice it actually was. It seemed more like a hotel room, if it weren’t for the medical equipment all over the place. He saw his mother, Aileen, sitting in an armchair next to the bed and immediately went to her side. She looked up and smiled at him as he leaned down to kiss her on the cheek.
“Knew it was a matter of time until you got here,” she said, her soft voice immediately calming his nerves.
“Course I was gonna come,” he replied, looking to the bed. Alanah was sleeping soundly, an oxygen mask resting over her mouth and nose and an IV needle stuck into her arm at the elbow. She looked a little paler than normal. “Where’s Jack, anyways? Figured he would be glued to her side.”
“Lanah made him go get some breakfast for himself and I,” Aileen said. “Poor boy was wearing a hole in the floor from all his pacing. Few times he was getting a bit snippy with the nurses. Hopefully when he gets back he’ll have calmed down some.”
Lach nodded as he pulled up a chair next to hers and sat down. “How’d she end up in a room like this, anyways? Pretty fancy for a hospital.”
“That would be Jack’s doing. Or, more likely his father’s. Once they knew that Alanah was getting admitted, they made sure that she was going to be comfortable.”
“Bet she kept telling them they didn’t have to,” Lachlan chuckled.
“Of course she did. But as you can see, she got overruled.” Aileen reached out and patted Alanah’s hand gently. “She just dozed off about ten minutes before you got here.” She gave a curious look to Lachlan. “Where are Sierra and the girls?”
“Nurse said it probably wasn’t a good idea for the little ones to visit, so Si took them down to the cafeteria. They’ll probably see Jack down there,” he answered, just as Jack himself walked back into the room carrying a couple of paper bags in one hand and a tray with coffee cups in the other.
“Hey Lach, glad you came,” Jack set the bags and tray down and shook Lachlan’s hand. “Just saw Sierra and the girls downstairs.”
“Yeah, nurse wouldn’t let Jade and Livvie visit. Too risky.”
Jack nodded. “Yeah, I can understand that.” He handed one of the cups to Aileen. “Your tea, mama.”
She gave him a fond little smile. “Buíochas a ghabháil leat mo dhuine beag.”
“Dangit, I better start learning Irish if you all are gonna keep doing that to me,” Jack muttered, pulling the food out from the bags as Lachlan and Aileen laughed.
--------
Central Park, New York City
A few hours later
It was a winter wonderland, like a scene plucked from a painting. A fresh layer of snow coated the ground, quickly being trampled underfoot by laughing children as they scampered around the park in play. Watching on from a nearby bench, Lachlan Kane smiled as he spotted Jade and Olivia throwing snowballs at their mother, Sierra Williams. But then, his face hardened into something more determined as he rose up from the bench and began walking a few feet away to a quieter part of the park. Sliding his hands into his pockets, he leaned up against a nearby tree and fixed the camera with his cold blue eyes.
“Let me make one thing perfectly, absolutely, unmistakably clear to you, Travis Levitt. At Climax Control, you got lucky. Very, very lucky. Don’t get me wrong, you have talent and potential. One day, I can see you as being one of the top players in SCW. But that day is far, far ahead of you in the future. Like I said, the only reason that you find yourself in that fatal four way match for the title is because you must have had a horseshoe up your arse that night or something. I mean, even if you happened to take advantage of the unfortunate incident I had with my brother, how the hell you ended up getting past the walking brick shithouse known as Austin Mercer still has me scratching my head. I mean, if it hadn’t been me going into that fatal four way - which, by the way, it was totally going to be barring a certain incident - I would have bet the house on AJM. Partly just to see what would happen with Wolfslair.” He snickered a little bit. “But it is what it is, the match is set, and you’re in like Flynn. I’d wish you luck in that match...but I’m fairly sure you used it all up just getting into the match itself.”
Lachlan paced a few steps back and forth, snow crunching underneath his feet. “But here’s something that’s got me a little perturbed for this pay per view.” He stopped pacing. “No, not perturbed. Just plain, downright pissed off. Even after you managed to weasel your way into the World title picture with a sneaky pin over me...management decided that apparently, you’re deserving of a second title shot. On the same show. Against the very man you FUCKED OVER for a World title shot.” Lachlan stopped for a moment to take a deep breath. He was clearly still upset at the events of last week, and was trying to maintain his composure. “It may not have been intentional on your part, and well...let’s face it, I’m pretty sure I would probably have done the same thing, though I’d like to think I have a little more integrity than that. No, the blame for this lies squarely with management. Although I kind of get it. They’re starting to run short on opponents for Sierra and I to decimate. Now, they’re scrambling to put some teams together just to give us a spot on the card. And this time, they thought maybe it would be interesting to have a couples’ battle, is that it?” Lachlan laughed bitterly. “We already had this dance with Ben and Evie Jordan, and we proved that we were the dominant couple. Now, we get to prove it again.” He let out a bit of a sigh, his breath coming out as a white cloud in the winter air. “You know, I almost, almost, want management to dissolve this division. It’s kind of starting to become a chore for Sierra and I to defend these belts. We’ve already put down everyone that could even be considered a threat. We’ve destroyed the others that were dumb enough to even think they were anywhere near Sierra and I’s league. Now? Now we’re getting thrown-together teams that have no ambition, no drive, no desire to even be in the mixed tag ranks. At least if the mixed tag division goes under, Sierra and I go down in the history books as the most dominant tag team to hold the gold.” He gave a little shrug. “Oh well, that’s not my call. Maybe we’ll just have to start a recruitment drive or something. Put some feelers out for some real talent to show up and start giving us a challenge. But that’s a problem for another day. RIght now, all Sierra and I have to focus on is showing up in Anaheim and - once again - proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are the most dominant champions this company has ever seen. Or ever will see.”
Lachlan started walking off in the direction of his family, but stopped to glance over his shoulder at the camera one last time. “I hope you don’t have some grand delusions of becoming a double champ on Sunday night, Travis. Because the way I see it, once Sierra and I get finished disposing of you and your little lady at the top of the show, whatever’s left of you will end up as wolf bait.”
With that cryptic statement and an enigmatic smirk gracing his features, the Irish scrapper sauntered off to rejoin his girls as the camera faded out to black.
